family

Family is and always will be number one to me. There are no exceptions and there is no other way I would have it. I think we all learn this at one point or another in our lives!

Recently, my grandparents celebrated their 60th anniversary… 60.. can you believe it? Better yet, can you imagine being married to your special someone for 60 years? I hope so. Marriage is about love, understanding and communication, but it’s not just that. It’s about building a community, a family and a bond with the others you bring into your life. It’s also HARD work. I think too many people bail on marriage too easily. They think it should be easy and should feel those sparks still flying 2, 3, 4, 5 years later but that’s just not realistic. You might lose the sparks, but what you gain is the comfort, security and ease of being yourself and knowing what you are coming home to.

I don’t consider myself the marrying type but if I was, I would look to my grandparents for inspiration. It has NOT always been easy for them. They have went through times of severe poverty, heart-ache, loss and tragedy. Throughout it all they have stuck together, stood by each other and came out on top. Now, even in the last 10 years I have seen their love for each other change! It used to be complacent, it used to be of responsibility and respect. It is still all of these things, but I now see a deeper bond that has developed between them in the last few years. They still have humor. They crack really corny jokes and share intimate moments. They understand each other more than anyone in the world and they can sense when the other is not feeling well or needs a nap. (To be fair I think that everyone needs a nap. In fact.. I should be taking one right now!). The point is, they have most definitely had struggles that could have torn some couples apart, but they persevered and now I believe they are happier than ever!

It seemed only natural that Grandpa’s guitar should come along. He has shared his gift and love for guitar with our family since as long as I can remember. It’s one of my favorite memories growing up. Not only that but he legitimately sings my Grandma songs with his guitar and that’s exactly what I asked him to do on the day of the shoot (which was the day of their 60th anniversary). Now that I think of it, I should have got Grandma to bring some buns and borscht and feed Grandpa because feeding people delicious food is most definitely her thing. I loved this whole shoot from start to finish and getting to see them in a whole new light with each other was refreshing. Their relationship and their testimony to marriage is constantly evolving and leaving the other marriages in my family a lot to live up to.

So I wanted to start the new year off by starting a new blog! Why you ask? It’s true I have at least three blogs started, updated and sadly… abandoned and unfinished. The reason I believe is because my focus for the blogs I have done in the past is BUSINESS. Pure and simple uploading photos and pumping out general business information. This time I want to start fresh, and I want to make this blog more PERSONAL. I don’t want to look at it as just another chore to do on my work list. I want to feel excited about posting personal stories, information, tutorials and above all letting my fans and people get to know the REAL me. I think it just may work out!

So some things I plan to change in the New Year…

For those of you who know me, know that I have been struggling with health and weight issues for awhile and while I am generally a pretty up beat, positive vibe person, when it comes to body image issues I am nothing but a negative Nancy. Which is silly because I love promoting body beauty awareness through my photos and I can honestly say some of the most beautiful people I have photographed are NOT skinny minnies or have your stereotypical model-type bodies. I see beauty in all shapes and sizes and I wish I could feel the same about myself! So I have made a vow to myself that I will bring my A game to get in shape this year.. not necessarily by dropping a few pant sizes (although let’s face it, that would be AWESOME), but just to get healthy, feel healthy and start living the way I should! I hope too that by sharing my journey with you in bits and pieces on this blog it will hold me a little bit more accountable to make these changes. One of my favorite things to do is dance around my house in my shorts and sports bra to some outrageously awesome music. I plan to do this every day until I work up a sweat, and I have also joined a boot camp to get my butt in gear. I am ready to make this year the best yet… after all I AM turning the big 3.0 this year!!! Aaaahhh!

Something else quite big coming up this year… In May it will be FIVE whole years since I started in photography, and honestly I am stunned, shocked, in awe, loving it, emotional, etc when I think about how far I have come and how much I LOVE what I do. I am truly so fortunate to be doing something that I love. I NEED to make this a memorable year but stepping up my game in photography, learning more, always expanding and trying new and different techniques. I am also dying to do something epic. I don’t know what yet… but I know I want it, and I have plans to make it happen!

Family time! I need more of it. My boys are my whole world and I want to spend more and better quality time with them. If this means re-organizing priorities sometimes (like taking on a little less work) than so be it! I want to grow with them, travel with them, and perhaps even teach them a thing or two about photography. I am excited for some adventures we have planned this year and also excited to share these adventures with all of you. I also want to take more photos of my family. I look through all of the photos I have done and often realize I have more photos of other peoples children then of my own! I guess that’s the way it usually goes in any profession, but photos are not something I want to be lacking of with my boys. In this digital age, I also find most of my photos are always online but never in print. There is still something about being able to HOLD a photograph in your hands and I want to make this a priority as well. To get more of my family photos printed and put into albums or hung on the wall 🙂

I’m not going to lie, I am a FACEBOOK ADDICT! This needs to change! I have come up with a nice little schedule for myself to become effective immediately. It allows me two 1/2 hour slots during the day to check up on Facebook, respond to comments, e-mails, update photos, etc. Other than that I am going to try my very hardest to stay away from Facebook. I find it eats up wasted time on basically NOTHING!

So with that being said those are just a few of the things that I am aching to get my change-on with this year!

I just arrived home from Jamaica a few days ago.. and I have to say, it has changed my life. I can’t wait to tell you why, but you will have to hang on until my next post!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog.. I hope you come again soon and I also want to say I welcome any photography related questions to agasteche@yahoo.ca or through my Facebook